


Hooked

by fictionboybuttsex



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-02
Updated: 2014-02-02
Packaged: 2018-01-10 22:49:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1165508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fictionboybuttsex/pseuds/fictionboybuttsex
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gon's quiet life on Whale Island gets interesting when he discovers a merboy named Killua hiding out in the local lake.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Kukuroo Cove

“How pretty.” Ponzu knelt by the shoreline and stretched her hand over the water. Her fingertips touched the surface and tiny circles rippled outward. “This looks more like a lake than a bay.”

Pokkle stood next to her, gazing farther out across the expanse. He nudged a rock into the water with his foot. “Kukuroo Cove. Estimated Depth: 3700 meters. It’s connected to the ocean underwater, so ‘lake’ may be a more appropriate term than ‘bay’. But it’s still affected by the changing tide. I’m amazed that it can be so still.”

“It does look like the type of place you’d find mermaids, though.” Ponzu stood up and wiped her wet fingers on her pants. “Don’t you think it looks a bit fantastical?”

She was right. The edges of the cove seemed so smooth and round that it looked like a bowl someone scooped out on purpose. In addition to being glassy smooth, the water was a shimmering turquoise. The rich backdrop of greenery gave the place a sense of seclusion and peacefulness.

“Magic beasts do tend to live in exotic locations. If I find solid evidence of mermaids, I’ll climb quickly in the esteem of the Hunter Association.” Pokkle clenched his fist in front of him. A white aura surrounded it. As a Hunter he was still new and untried. He had only earned his license a year ago, and spent the better part of that year learning how to control the power called Nen. Now, he needed to put his newfound abilities to the test.

“I’m going to see if I can get a better vantage from that outcrop,” Pokkle said, leaving Ponzu by the water. She seemed content to stare across it for now. Ponzu had only just earned her license, having ended up in a sticky situation during the previous year’s Exam. While she fell just short of the end that year, Pokkle advanced to the final phase and passed. In spite of not having yet learned Nen, Ponzu’s skill with traps and poisons well complimented Pokkle’s keen senses and archery. She remained a valuable partner, but for this particular mission her poisons and trained bees were virtually useless.

The outcrop Pokkle walked out on protruded half a dozen meters above the water, where it dropped off sharply. When he got to the edge and looked down, the sheer drop seemed to continue underwater. Perhaps a chunk of shoreline had broken off here in the past.

Turning his gaze outward, he could see a smattering of islets across the water. The locals said that the mermaids and mermen would sometimes lie upon these stony protrusions, tempting anyone out in the water to come to their side. Whether or not there were really mermaids here, one thing was for certain: people who went too far from shore, swimming or on a boat, disappeared and left nothing behind. Normally drowning and animal attacks still left clothing or pieces of corpse to be discovered later. Something lurked in Kukuroo Cove, and Pokkle was here to unmask it.

His eyes refocused as he spotted something in his peripheral vision. Several meters ahead of the outcrop, and below the water’s surface, an abnormality interrupted the otherwise continuous blue color. The object floated up sluggishly, as though waterlogged. At first all Pokkle could tell about it was that it was something pale, tangled up in long, dark seaweed or something similar. Whatever the dark stuff was, it undulated naturally in the water.

As the thing rose up further, he could tell that the darks substance was hair; the pale color a body. The corpse’s head seemed to be coming up first, and he could see the torso taking on definition as it followed after. There was no question that the man was dead. The skin was so pale it was almost translucent. The man’s eyes were massive, black, and staring. Those were not the eyes of a living human being.

Pokkle felt chills looking at those eyes. But finding a corpse in the cove that never gave up corpses? He might be able to make something of this.

The corpse blinked, and tilted its head at him curiously. Pokkle was overwhelmed by a sensation of dread unlike any he had ever felt.

Where there had existed no signs of life before, a black, nauseating aura of Nen now surrounded the man… no. Pokkle could see below his waist now. The merman.  
“You look…” the merman’s voice sounded as dead as he looked, “…delicious.”

A pale arm rose out of the water. Grey fish scales grew out of the flesh in random patches. Between his long, bony fingers, the merman held a simple throwing dart.  
Pokkle felt like he was going to die.

A familiar buzzing filled up his ears, and the merman was forced to pause and consider the oncoming storm of bees. That gave Pokkle the moment he needed.  
“Rainbow: Seven Spectrum Array – Blue Arrow!” Extending his arms as though grasping a bow, Pokkle’s aura took on the function of the bow and the shape of an arrow. He released the blue bolt immediately, with the precision of a lifetime’s experience in archery. The merman flung his dart, but it made no difference. The dart, followed by the merman’s hand, made contact with the attack. Ice immediately encroached upon them, freezing the Merman past the shoulder. The merman’s expression never changed.

Pokkle ran.

Ponzu fell in step beside him, and neither exchanged a word until they were out of site of the water.

“That thing knew Nen,” Pokkle growled, slamming his fist into a tree. “It knew Nen, and it was a lot stronger than me. This… this is way beyond my level of skill.”

“I felt something awful when I saw it break the surface of the water. I’m glad I sent my bees in time to distract him.”

The very bees of which Ponzu spoke were then making their return, buzzing after the familiar pheromones that Ponzu wore like perfume. They swarmed about her head, alighted on her dome-shaped hat, and pushed their way inside.

“If you hadn’t sent them I think I would have made a very ignoble end. Thanks, Pon.”

“Thank the bees. What are we going to do now?”

“Report what we saw to the Hunter Association. That’s all we can do, really.”

“And after that?”

Pokkle considered that briefly. “I received an email the other day through the Hunter website. Something about an autonomous state in the Mitene Union… I don’t remember what it stands for, but I believe it was called NGL.”


	2. Gon Fishing

The fishing lure plopped into the water.

Gon adjusted his position on the tree branch, holding his rod with a steady hand. He gazed down far below, watching the lure bob up and down on the lake.

He waited.

The late summer breeze carried the scent of saltwater. Everyone who lived on Whale Island knew the smell well. It had many nuances that changed with the weather and seasons. Gon could tell that the bright days of summer were drawing to a close. Autumn would come soon, painting the leaves and stirring up storms. Fishing would become impractical as the season drew on towards winter. Gon would enjoy the days until then as much as he could.

He continued waiting.

Some ducks and geese floated around the edges of the lake, quacking and honking. Above Gon, higher up in the tree, a pair of bluebirds twittered noisily. Soon enough, almost all the birds would be gone. He listened contentedly to their song.

The sun rolled along through the sky, reflected on the mirror-like surface of the lake. The clouds looked thin and stretched out. Gon could tell they would be replaced by rainclouds soon. But whether it would be tomorrow or the day after, he couldn’t say…

The lure dropped below the water’s surface. He blinked. He felt a sudden tug on the rod and tightened his grip. Down below the lake’s surface, he could see the shadow of a large fish, tugging at the line.

But he saw a second shadow too, swimming up behind. Its silhouette was even larger, and had an odd shape to it…

The second shadow swooped into the hooked fish, and the reel on Gon’s fishing rod began to spin erratically as it dragged his catch deeper into the lake.

He caught the reel and began to fight back.

The struggling shadows began to rise towards the surface once more, but the strain was intense. Had Gon’s equipment been anything but the best, the line—or even the rod—might have snapped.

Without warning, the larger shadow detached itself and the shredded remains of Gon’s fish popped out of the lake.

Gon took up the line in his teeth, broke it, and dived off the branch with his rod, all in the span of a second. He hit the water head-first, and opened his eyes.  
A flurry of bubbles due to entry limited his view, but that didn’t change what he saw.  
A pair of very human eyes blinked at him. Then, a very fish-like tail whipped between them and the merperson disappeared from sight. It happened too fast for even Gon’s keen senses to follow. Whether the merperson swam below him, around him, or just beyond his field of vision in the very direction he was staring… he had no idea.

~

Aunt Mito set a steaming plate of vegetables and pork in front of him, and sighed. “Gon, there’s no such thing as mermaids.”  
Granny was more receptive. “What did she look like?”

“Mm.” Gon chewed on a forkful of broccoli thoughtfully. “I think it was a boy. His face seemed really pale, but he didn’t look sick. His eyes were very blue. He had kind of fluffy white hair, but the fish part of him was green. He swam away too fast for me to see much more.”

“Honestly, Gon.”

Granny smiled. “Now Mito, you know your nephew. How often does he lie?”

“It’s the truth,” Gon told them, pouting. “I’m not lying, Aunt Mito.”

“Perhaps you saw it wrong, then.”

Granny leaned towards Gon confidentially. “You should be careful. Most of the stories of merpeople I know have them luring young people to watery deaths. I wouldn’t go swimming with him again, if I were you.”

“Really? He didn’t seem dangerous.” Gon thought back to the fish he’d pulled up with his pole. Several large chunks of it had been missing, as though ripped or bitten off. “Well… maybe. I’ll be careful.”

“Eat your meat before it gets cold.”

“Yes, Aunt Mito!”

~

The next morning, Gon returned to the tree by the lake. Again he climbed to his favorite perch, baited his rod, and cast his line into the water.

Grey clouds covered the sky, but so far there hadn’t been any rain. Gon sat back to wait much as he had yesterday, but this time his eyes scanned the lake for any sign of the shadow from before.

He caught a good-sized fish about an hour later; plenty big enough for Aunt Mito to make a meal of. When he started to feel raindrops, he decided that it made sense to return home early. He felt disappointed not to see the merboy again, but he supposed it wouldn’t be that easy.

He gathered up his things, fish included, and stood up on the branch. A splash attracted his attention to some nearby reeds, and he thought he saw a white fluff disappear under the water. Perhaps seeing the merboy again wouldn’t be as difficult as he’d thought.

Days passed, and similar incidents occurred. Gon went out every day in spite of the weather. When it rained he brought an umbrella and walked around the lake’s perimeter, when the sun shone he spent more time fishing. Sometimes he sat in the tree, sometimes at a different point on the edge of the lake, and once he borrowed a neighbor’s rowboat to fish in the middle of the lake on. Some days passed with no obvious signs of the merboy, but most days Gon heard a splash or caught a glimpse of something that made him think the boy must be curious about Gon, too.

A week after seeing the merboy for the first time, Gon decided to try an experiment. He brought a handful of toys and other items to the lake. He spent several hours fishing as usual. All his catches were fairly small, and he released them. When the sun started to set and he decided he should be getting home, he tossed the items he’d brought with him into the lake.  
~

The next morning, while Gon was helping his aunt prepare breakfast, they heard a knock at the door.

“Gon, could you see who that is?” Aunt Mito asked him, busily tending to the scrambled eggs.

“Sure!” Gon wiped his hands on a towel and scampered to the door.

“Oh, Gon, good morning.” It was the neighbor Gon borrowed the boat from a few days before. “You’re just the man I wanted to see. I went out early this morning for a walk around the lake, and I found these all stacked up on shore. Aren’t they yours?”

“Ah!” Gon found himself looking at the very items he’d thrown into the lake yesterday. He received them from the man and looked them over. All seemed in about the same condition as when he’d thrown them in. “Wait… wasn’t there a yo-yo with these?”

“Not that I saw. You need to be more careful with your things, Gon.”

“Sorry, I’ll be more careful.”

After breakfast, Gon rushed to finish his chores and ran down to the lake, arriving earlier than usual.

The sight that greeted him was the same as always: sparkling water, reeds dancing in the breeze, ducks swimming, and bugs buzzing about. His tree branch looked open and inviting, but he wasn’t here to fish. He took off his boots, jacket, shorts, and tank top and waded out into the water in nothing but his boxers. The long-term exposure to the summer heat had made the shallows of the lake pleasantly warm, and even when he waded in all the way to his chest the water didn’t feel cold. He continued until he was up to his chin, and then he waited.

Hours passed without a sign of the merboy as usual. The day grew hot, and Gon felt his head growing uncomfortably warm in the sunlight. He took a deep breath and submerged himself.

When he opened his eyes underwater, a pair of blue eyes stared back at him. The merboy had his arms crossed over the top of a boulder, and looked like he’d been resting there for some time. He blinked at Gon in mild bemusement, but everything else about him appeared casual and unconcerned. The fingers of his right hand curled around Gon’s missing yo-yo. A white fluff of hair topped his head, undulating lazily. He was too far ahead of Gon to make out finer details, and the water gave him a greenish tinge.

Gon tilted his head at the boy curiously. The boy, as though mirroring him, tilted his head, too. Gon blew some bubbles. The boy raised his eyebrows. Gon stuck out his tongue. The boy just continued looking at him. Gon drew his tongue back in and held the other boys stare. Neither broke eye contact for the next several minutes. The interaction felt… very human.

Gon finally had to come up for air. His head broke the surface and he breathed in deeply. He sucked in air again and dove down once more.

The merboy was gone.

Gon swam in a circle and saw… a tail. A blue-green fish tail sat back against a submerged log.

He popped back out of the water. The merboy looked down at him, swinging the yo-yo in a circle above his head. He was snow white from head to waist, excepting his eyes and some random patches of more blue-green scales on his lean body and arms. His ears also had a green tinge to them. They were pointed, and edged with spines.

The yo-yo conked Gon on the head.

“Ouch.” Gon rubbed his forehead. “What was that for?”

“It’s rude to stare, moron.”

Gon felt a smile spring to his face. “You can talk!”

The yo-yo hit him again.

“Ouch!”

“Of course I can talk; I’m not a dumb animal. But I’m not so sure about you.” The merboy smirked.

“Hey, that’s rude.”

“You’re calling me rude? You’re the one who hasn’t left me alone.”

“You could have stayed away, but you were spying on me.”

Conk. The yo-yo bounced off Gon’s head for the third time, but this time he managed to grab the string. “You’re not using it right. Let me show you.”

“Huh?”

Gon plucked the string and it slipped off the merboy’s finger. He waded into shallower water and wrapped the yo-yo back up, proceeding to drop it and demonstrate how to pull it back up again. “See? Pretty fun, huh?”

“Let me try.”

Gon tossed the yo-yo back to the merboy. The yo-yo was soon spinning up and down at a steady pace. The merboy seemed impressed with himself.

“I’m Killua.”

Gon blinked. “Killua?”

The yo-yo bonked him again and was quickly retracted into the merboy’s palm.

“Yes, that’s my name. Killua.”

“Oh! I’m Gon. It’s nice to meet you, Killua.” He grinned.

“You’re a strange one.”

“Huh? Really?”

Killua nodded. “Most humans are afraid of merpeople, or want to capture them to show off to other humans. It’s usually one or the other. But you aren’t afraid, and you don’t seem like you’re trying to trap me. Not that you could if you tried. See ya.” Without warning, he slipped back into the water.

“Wait!”

Killua’s only acknowledgement, if it was an acknowledgement at all, was a splashing wave of his fin. It sprayed Gon with water, and in moments Gon stood alone.

“Well,” Gon glanced up at the sky, “I suppose it’s time to head back and get some lunch anyways.” He took one last lingering look at the lake before making his way back to shore.


	3. Chocolate

The days grew shorter as summer faded into autumn, and another week of visits to the lake passed by. Gon spoke to Killua every day, though he always had to go through a process of finding the merboy first. When Killua broke his yo-yo, Gon promised to get him a new one. He used his free time in the evenings to work odd jobs in town, and made enough money to purchase a particularly resilient yo-yo from the toy store.

“Hey, did you get it yet?” Killua asked two days after breaking his toy. He floated on his back, his hands under his head. The raindrops bouncing off his face and chest didn’t seem to bother him.

“I won’t have the money until tomorrow.” Gon doggy paddled in a lazy circle around his friend. That morning, they swam out farther than usual from shore. Killua had proven his swimming superiority in a one-sided wrestling match earlier. He nearly drowned Gon twice, but both came out laughing from the exercise.

“Money?” Killua frowned, not recognizing the word. “What’s that?”

There were many words Killua didn’t understand. Since their daily conversations began Gon taught him about several toys, food like chocolate and ice cream, explained the function of clothing, and even described what it was like inside a house.

“Money is… well, it’s something you use to trade for things you want. You use money to buy food, toys, clothes… pretty much everything. And you earn money by doing some kind of work for other people, or by selling something.”

“Hm… I guess I get it. It’s basically for trading then?”

“Yeah.” Rain plopped on Gon’s head, heavier than before. He shivered.

Killua twisted off his back and righted himself. “Gon, you okay?”

“It’s getting cold,” Gon confessed. Mind swimming back to shore?”

Killua’s mouth moved, but he didn’t say anything. He seemed to struggle with something, then turned away. “You head back. I need to go find something to eat. Later.”

Gon let him go. He’d learned that once Killua decided to leave, nothing he could say would make a difference. Taking a deep breath, Gon dunked his face into the water and began swimming back to shore. He had his job to go work again, and then he would head home.

~

“Gon!” Aunt Mito ran out to meet him when he came within sight of the house. “It’s pouring. Let’s get you inside and dried off… you’re going to catch a cold!”

Gon chuckled. “Aunt Mito, I haven’t been sick since I was nine.”

“Let’s hope it stays that way. Come on, and take off your boots when you get in. They’re full of mud.”

They entered the house. Aunt Mito helped Gon pull off his wet clothes and asked Granny to bring a towel. Once he was dry, Granny ran a hot bath for him while Aunt Mito went to the kitchen to prepare some soup.

“You both worry too much,” Gon told Granny as she helped him wash his back.

“It’s not fun being sick, Gon. If you fell ill we’d be twice as worried, so best we take precautions.”

It rained all through the night and into the next morning. When Gon came downstairs for breakfast, he heard his aunt and Granny talking.

“The lake might flood at this rate,” Granny was saying. “The wind’s picking up, too. This could turn into quite the storm.”

“I suppose it’s a good reason to keep Gon at home. He’s been spending too much time out there. Now that summer’s over he should be home more… Ah, Gon, you’re up. Good morning.” Aunt Mito turned on the faucet and rinsed off a soapy plate. She handed it to Granny, who dried it with a towel and added it to a small pile of other dishes.

“Morning.” Gon rubbed his eyes. “I slept in. Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“Granny helped me with the morning chores, and I was still worried about your health so I wanted to let you sleep. You should stay home today. This rain isn’t going to let up for awhile. How do pancakes sound?”

“Mm, sounds good. I was hoping after breakfast that I could run into town to buy something.”

Aunt Mito shook her head. “I think most shops will be closed today, Gon. I’d like you to stay at home, at least until the rain lets up.”

“In the meantime, you can tell us about your merman.” Granny chuckled.

Though he knew she was only humoring him, Gon brightened at the opportunity to talk about Killua. He began from the first day they’d spoken.

The rest of the day was spent playing board games and helping his aunt and Granny bake. Mito often used cooking as a way to help Gon pass the time when he couldn’t be outside. Gon could always tell exactly when something was finished baking from the smell. Aunt Mito was excellent at cooking, and Granny was a veteran baker, but they always said that the food came out better when Gon was around to help.  
The rain finally abated that evening, but it was too late for Gon to go out by then. He felt anxious about Killua. This was the first full day they’d gone without seeing each other in nearly three weeks. He tried to ignore his worry though: he’d explain to Killua tomorrow, and bring him a cupcake to try. Days like this were bound to come along once in awhile.

He went to bed early and was up with the sunrise. Deciding to treat Aunt Mito and Granny for a change, he tip-toed downstairs and had a breakfast ready for them by the time they shuffled into the kitchen. It was an amiable morning all around, and Gon left the house with smiles behind him and two chocolate cupcakes in his backpack. The sun was out, and fluffy white clouds floated below a backdrop of sour blue.

He had to wait a few minutes for the toy store to open, but when the manager let him in he knew right where to go. The yo-yo he wanted was bigger than the palm of his hand; heavy and solid. The string on it looked about as tough as fishing line, and the label said the toy was waterproof. The yo-yo had a star pattern on its faces; the color reminded him of Killua’s eyes. He handed over his hard-earned money to the shopkeeper, and left the store with a satisfied grin.

He practiced “walk the dog” with Killua’s new toy as he strolled down to the lake. The motions of the yo-yo were sure and consistent. He smiled to himself, imagining Killua’s reaction…

“Gon!”

He had hardly stepped into sight of the lake when Killua called him. He saw the merboy, just several meters from the shoreline, waving for his attention. Rather than happy, Killua looked distressed.

“Killua!” Gon pocketed the yo-yo and sprinted down to the edge of the water. “What happened? Are you okay?”

“What happened?” Killua seemed incredulous. “You weren’t here yesterday. That’s what happened!”

“That’s all?” Gon crouched down by the water. “Why are you so upset? Aunt Mito didn’t want me going out because of the storm. I wanted to come, I just-”

“How was I supposed to know that? What kind of excuse is a little wind and rain?”

“Wind and rain might not be a big deal to you, but that wind knocked down some trees yesterday.” Gon pointed at an obvious example within sight of the lake, where a pine tree had been uprooted and thrown over. “And there are broken branches everywhere. People can get killed by those. Plus, the rain makes the ground slippery, and the lake is a lot higher than normal now, right? It’s hard to see when it’s dark and rainy, and if I’d fallen into one of the channels that helps keep the lake from flooding, I could have been swept away!”

Killua maintained an irritated expression until towards the end of Gon’s tirade, when his eyes suddenly brightened.

“So that’s what those are for…” Killua tapped his chin thoughtfully.

“Eh? What is it?”

“One of those channels is how I got here in the first place.”

“What do you mean?”

“A couple months ago, I got carried here by a similar storm to the one yesterday. I found one of those channels, and followed it inland until I made it here, to the lake.”

Gon gaped. “You mean you’re actually from the ocean?”

“Yeah. So?”

“I didn’t know that!”

“I didn’t know humans were too fragile to take a little heavy rain until now, so I guess we’re even.”

Gon let that go. “Why did you force your way up here? It couldn’t have been easy forcing yourself up one of those narrow channels.”

“Tell me about it. It was awful. I felt so sick having to adjust to fresh water that I thought I was going to pass out. I had to just lay at the mouth of the channel for a couple hours and let my body adjust before I was able to start crawling along to get here. I couldn’t even swim against that current. I had to pull myself along with my hands. It sucked.”

“Then why…?”

Killua waved the question aside. “Family issues. Nothing that concerns you. I’m just glad this place turned out to be so spacious. I’m not enjoying the food much, but it’s enough to get by on.

“Ah, speaking of food…” Gon rummaged through his pack and brought out the cupcakes. “I want you to try something.” He kicked off his shoes and waded out waist-deep into the water. Killua swam up to him, eyeing the cupcakes warily.

“Are you saying those are food? They look more like mud. Or worse.”

“Just because they’re brown doesn’t mean they’re bad. You eat brown fish don’t you? It’s chocolate. Chocolate cake. Try one.” Gon took a bite of one cupcake and offered Killua the other. The Merboy picked it up between the tips of his fingers.

“It’s so… spongy…” He brought it up to his nose and sniffed. “Weird…”

Gon nibbled at his cupcake, amused. The normally blunt and cocky Killua had finally met his match: a home-baked treat.

“Come on, Killua. I think you’ll like it.”

Killua sniffed it one more time. “All right, all right. If I get sick, it’s your fault.” He closed his eyes, opened his mouth, and bit in.

“Well?”

Killua swallowed and stared down at his cupcake.

“Killua?”

The merboy stuffed the entirety of what remained into his mouth. He struggled a bit to swallow it, but when it went down he sighed with contentment.

“So you like it then, huh?”

Killua held out his hand. “Give me the rest of yours.”


	4. Flow

Cupcakes devoured, it was time to present the main gift. Gon unveiled the yo-yo with a grin, the polished surface a gleaming gemstone in his palm.

“Amazing…” Killua stretched out his hand. His fingertips closed down on the jewel. Gon’s free hand shot out and closed on Killua’s hand like a vice.

Gon both saw and felt Killua stiffen. For half a heartbeat, Gon saw shock in Killua’s eyes.

The merboy yanked his hand out, leaving the yo-yo behind.

“Gon… what the hell…”

Gon turned both his palms face-up, and looked down at them. The yo-yo sat in one hand, shimmering where Killua’s wet skin had touched it. The other palm was empty, shimmering in a similar way. He flexed the fingers of the empty hand, then tossed the yo-yo to Killua. Killua caught it easily. Gon watched as he backed away.

“You never touch me, you know. Or when you do, it’s quick. As soon as it’s there, it’s gone.” Gon crossed his arms, looking Killua over and thinking. Killua’s white hair was going green with algae as the weeks passed by. Gon had tried to get Killua to let him wash it once, but Killua refused. Killua’s skin was likewise pale, excepting the blue-green scales. Where there weren’t scales, the skin seemed almost translucent, but there was nothing discernible beneath it. Even his lips were colorless. His face, expressions, bone structure, the way he moved and his muscles flexed… all of that, at least above the waist, was human. But half of him was fish tail, thin lines in his neck marked gills that opened up underwater, and above all else something dark lurked in Killua’s eyes that felt eerie and alien.

Gon looked at his hands again. “Your skin felt really cold.”

He saw the tiny apple of Killua’s throat bob as the merboy swallowed. The humanity in that tiny, involuntary action spurred Gon’s determination. He waded out into the water.

Killua shook his head. “No, Gon. It’s better to keep things like this.”

“You’re hiding things from me.” Gon continued to move forward.

“It’s what’s best for both of us. We can’t get too close.”

“Why? We’re friends, aren’t we? We’re supposed to be close.”

The distance between them was closing. Killua drew back a bit, but his heart didn’t seem to be in it and he stopped a few yards away. The water was up to Gon’s neck, now. He brought his feet up and started to swim.

“Gon…” Killua shook his head.

Gon closed the gap between them until they were little more than a foot apart.

Killua closed his eyes. Kicking with his feet to keep afloat, Gon reached up with both hands and cupped Killua’s face, taking in his features and the icy, smooth touch of his skin. Killua’s nose was too small, and his lips too thin. His jaw framed his soft face with artistic symmetry, while his lashes held the qualities of fresh-fallen snow. His eyebrows were a grade darker than the rest of his hair, and the way they pulled together spoke to the tension Gon felt beneath his fingers.

“Killua, why are you so cold?”

“I’m always cold.” Killua rested one of his hands—the other still clutched the yo-yo—on top of Gon’s. He rubbed his cheek against Gon’s palm, the tension in his face melting away. “And you’re always warm, like the sun.” He turned, seemed to sniff Gon’s wrist, and nuzzled it. His lips brushed over it.

Suddenly, Gon felt pain.

Killua’s mouth was clamped firmly around his wrist. Fresh blood dripped past the seal of his lips into the water.

“Kill…ua”

Killua’s eyes flicked open and locked onto Gon’s. The pupils were dilated, and devoid of warmth. The blue irises that edged the black voids lacked their usual luster. Gon had seen that look before. Those were the eyes of a foxbear, singling out a rabbit, or an eagle descending upon an unwary gull.

A blink, and the humanity in Killua’s eyes returned. A hint of the animal still lurked within the darkness of those pupils, though.

Killua released Gon’s arm.

His lips, stained red with blood, mouthed “I’m sorry.” A flick of a tail and a splash of water, and Killua vanished beneath the lake.

Gon licked one of the bleeding holes on his wrist thoughtfully. It tasted like iron and salt.

~

“Oh, Gon, you’re home early.”

Aunt Mito was hanging clothes on the line to dry when Gon made it back to his house.

“Just here to grab my fishing rod. I think I’m going to see if I can catch something for dinner. Yesterday’s storm could have stirred the fish up.”

“I see. Make sure you’re home in time for dinner.”

“Mm-hm! Later Aunt Mito!”

Covered by his jacket sleeve, she never saw the wound. Taking fishing rod in hand, Gon raced along back in the direction of the lake. He swung far wide of it, though. 

He wouldn’t be fishing at the lake today. He had another destination in mind.  
The scent of saltwater was present no matter where you stood on Whale Island, but it lost its potency far from shore. Gon got a face full of pure saltwater breeze as he jogged along towards the shoreline. The sound of waves grew from a distant murmur to a heavy grinding and finally rose up in a series of rhythmic, hungry roars. 

When the ocean revealed itself in all its jagged immensity, Gon couldn’t help but smile.

What kind of life had Killua led beneath those wild, white-capped waves? He’d mentioned a family… what were they like? How many others like him were out there? What was it like to swim through the fields, forests, and mountains of their world?

He forced his eyes back down and along the shoreline, searching, searching… there!

An almost imperceptible gap opened out into the water. Gon walked towards it, and when he got there the gap proved to be one of the places he was looking for. A deep but narrow channel had been bored into a steeper portion of shoreline, and made its way inland for as far as Gon could see. He knew that it led out close to the lake. The channel was usually dry, but a pump brought water up into it for purposes of irrigation, and it doubled as a drain for when the lake got too full. There were several of these poking out from the shore, he knew. Which one had Killua struggled up to reach the lake? What had driven him to gamble on such an uncertain venture?

Gon returned his attention to the ocean. He walked towards a patch of water that seemed darker and deeper than the rest of the water along the sandy shoreline, and cast out his line.

He fished until the sun began setting. Each catch he examined between his hands, feeling more than looking, before he tossed the flopping fish back again. He kept none of his catches, in spite of catching a couple that would have made a decent meal. Each fish felt similar, but none felt the same. Most were cool to the touch, some icy, but a couple seemed rather warm. It was confusing and unhelpful. Dissatisfied but running close to Aunt Mito’s deadline, Gon returned home empty-handed.

“You’re awfully quiet tonight, Gon,” Aunt Mito mentioned as she dipped a piece of bread into her soup. “No fish tales to tell us today?”

“Mm.” Gon sucked on his spoon. Tomato and basil coated his tongue, a world apart from fish and salt. But he could still smell the lake in his jacket, and could still feel Killua’s bite in his wrist.

“Aunt Mito, Granny,” Gon looked up from his soup, “people and mammals are warm-blooded, right? And reptiles are cold-blooded. What about fish?”

“Cold blooded, I would imagine,” Granny leaned back in her chair and gave her stomach a satisfied pat.

“Why don’t you go look it up at the library?” Aunt Mito suggested. “I’ve been meaning to pick up something new to read, and I have a book that’s almost due. It should be open for another hour if you want to finish eating and go.”

“Will you help me find the right books?”

“Sure.”

Gon smiled. “Thanks, Aunt Mito!” He shoveled the rest of his soup down, and later that night returned with his aunt to the house, half a dozen books between them.

He learned that warm and cold blood weren’t as straightforward as they seemed. Endothermy, ectothermy, homeothermy, and poikilothermy were several terms among many; he found himself swimming in a jumble of words and phrases that would have fried his brain if Aunt Mito hadn’t taken the time to simplify them. The problem was that most of what they looked through seemed possible for Killua, and Gon went to bed unsatisfied.

~

The next morning, a light rain was falling. Autumn was a volatile season for the island, and in a few hours the rain could as easily clear as downpour. Gon ran through to the lake, ignoring the mud that splattered his boots.

Gon had a feeling Killua wouldn’t want to come out today. Yesterday’s silent apology left that impression. Unwilling to trust his luck wandering the lakeside, Gon took the liberty of “borrowing” the neighbor’s rowboat and paddled out and around the lake’s perimeter. Finding Killua wouldn’t be easy, he decided after an hour of blinking through rain, staring into any likely hiding place he could see.

He glided towards the center of the lake, stripped free of most of his clothes, and dived off the boat. He propelled himself through the water quickly, not going too deep, staying at a level where he could still see a few yards ahead. It seemed a cold, empty world. Looking down, steely blue darkened to inky black. Looking above, shifting shimmers marked the lake dwellers’ version of the sky.

He swam nearly five minutes before returning to the surface for air. Half a minute later, he was under again.

Swim, rise, dive. Swim, rise, dive. Three, four, five times. He had been swimming half an hour, and had seen little more than plant debris and a few tiny fish. He decided to try his luck going deeper.

After another hour, he rose to take air for what must have been the twentieth time. He blinked water out of his eyes and looked around. The boat he’d borrowed had drifted on much closer to shore. He put his face in the water and began swimming towards it.

Halfway to the boat, he came up for another breath, and decided to try one more dive.

Finally, a white silhouette rose from out of the darkness to greet him.

Killua’s extended a hand. Gon reached for it without hesitation.

The merboy’s fingers digged into him. Killua dove.


	5. Family

Killua dragged Gon into darkness. The water pressure increased, transitioning from uncomfortable to painful. His field of vision decreased from a few feet, to one, to a few inches, to nothing at all. He could hold his breath for a long time, but against this pressure…

He felt a tingle run up his arm. Something sparked, and for an instant he could see. The something sparked again, but held its light this time. It was an unsteady, weak blue light, but it was enough.

Lake weeds rose ahead of them in waving, dense forests. Fish darted in and out of sight, dozens of different shapes and sizes. A sunken rowboat, half rotted away, rested among algae covered rocks like a monument. And next to Gon, pulling him along, was another resident of this world. Killua’s hair undulated just like the weeds, and his tail flicked just like the fishes. On his free hand, the tips of Killua’s fingers sparked, creating the flickering light that allowed Gon to see.

The sparks disappeared, leaving Gon once again in darkness. The electric tingle in his arm went away. Killua pulled him in close, and Gon felt something sharp on his neck.

The water pressure hurt. He needed to breathe. He waited.

Just as his lungs were screaming at him, Killua began to swim towards the surface. The powerful strokes of his tail brought them crashing into open air in a fraction of the time it took them to descend. Gon sucked in a massive gulp of air. He felt terribly lightheaded. He clung to Killua for support while he worked to catch his breath and readjust to normal pressure.

“I could have killed you, you know.” Killua told him. “Every day you’ve come to see me, I could have killed you. I could have done it in a thousand ways, a thousand times. Drowning, strangulation, laceration, electrocution. I could have ripped your heart from your chest while it still beat. I could have shattered your skull with a lash of my tail.

“So?” Gon wasn’t breathing so hard now, and his head felt better. “You haven’t killed me, and you wouldn’t. So it doesn’t matter.”

“I’ve wanted to kill you plenty of times.”

“But you’re my friend, so you still won’t.”

“You’re impossible.” Killua pushed Gon away and looked at him with undisguised frustration.

“Thank you for taking me down to show me your home, Killua.”

Killua turned away uncomfortably. “I was trying to scare you, moron.”

“Would you like to come to my house sometime?”

“What? Gon, I can’t just go flop around without water.”

“I actually had an idea about that.”

Killua groaned.

~

“Aunt Mito, can I invite a friend to spend the night tomorrow?”

Granny caught on right away.

“Do we finally get to meet this mysterious merboy of yours?” She chuckled.

“Grandmother, don’t be ridiculous.” Mito frowned. “Of course your friend can come over. Should I make something special for dinner?”

“Hmm.” Gon tapped his chin thoughtfully. “Some kind of meat. Something other than fish. And something with chocolate for desert!”

That was how it began.

And now, Gon charged towards his house with all the stubborn drive of a mule, dragging a wooden cart behind him. On the cart sat a rowboat. Water sloshed about in the boat, weighing down the cart and making is wheels sink over an inch into the ground. In the water sat Killua, who had long since forgotten that he was supposed to be upset. Gon looked over his shoulder and saw the merboy’s eyes filled up with the house, sharp teeth exposed in open-mouthed delight.

Then out of the house came Aunt Mito and Granny, the latter smiling bemusedly, the other looking a little stunned.

“Granny! Aunt Mito!” Gon slowed in order to wave to them as he brought the cart up towards the front door. “I’d like you to meet Killua!” He pulled the cart up alongside his aunt and great grandmother, and made sure it was stable before he let it go.

Killua rested his elbows on the side of the boat and set his chin in his hands. He flicked his tail out of the water and waved it at them. “Yo.”

Aunt Mito stared, blinked a few times, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath in. Gon saw her face and shoulders relax. She looked at Killua again.

“Gon has told us a lot about you. Welcome to our home.”

Granny nodded. “A pleasure to finally see you in the flesh. Or maybe in this case, scales.”

“Dinner will be ready in half an hour,” Mito told them. “Gon, could you get the picnic table set up? And Granny, could you run the bath for the boys? They’d best get cleaned up before we eat.”

Five minutes later, Killua got his first ever look at the inside of a house. Gon carried him through the door awkwardly, Killua’s wet body dampening his clothes. 

Killua’s tail was longer than a pair of human legs would be, so he was actually a good deal taller than Gon was. Gon was plenty strong enough to carry him, but the slippery, lanky merboy was not the easiest to maneuver. They created a trail of droplets as they navigated the house.

Gon gave Killua an abridged tour on their way to the bathroom, pointing out various pieces of furniture and décor, giving their names and functions, and answering Killua’s questions as they went. Killua was especially intrigued by the proceedings in the kitchen, where he eyed Mito warily until she explained and demonstrated the exactly process of what she was doing to prepare the food. He made a face when he saw that the meal included vegetables, but approved the inclusion of applesauce.

“I’ve only had apples a couple times. They don’t end up floating around in the water too often, so I’m lucky to have even had that. Hard to believe they come from a plant. They’re almost as sweet as chocolate!”

“Tell me if the water’s too hot for you,” Gon told him when they reached the bathroom. Killua dipped his fingers into the tub.

“Rather than too hot, that’s going to feel really nice. Dump me in.”

Gon lowered Killua into the water slowly so as not to splash. Killua sighed contentedly as he soaked up the warmth.

“Do you think soap will be okay for you?”

“This stuff? Let me see.” Killua rubbed a little soap between his fingers. “Should be fine so long as I breathe through my lung and not my gills. Are you getting in, or what?”

Gon grinned and pulled off his shirt.

“Careful not to let me sit on your fin!”

Spirits were high and the mood convivial from bath time through dinner. Killua ate from inside the water-filled boat, and the rain was kind enough to hold off until everyone’s plates were clean. Gon laughed watching Mito criticize Killua for picking at his vegetables, and had laughed harder at the faces his friend made as he forced the vegetables down. He might have ignored Mito’s compulsion if it hadn’t been for the threat of no dessert.

After dinner, Mito and Granny took in the dishes and Gon put the table away just as rain started coming down. He then brought Killua back to the bathroom, where fresh warm water waited in the tub. After setting Killua in the water, he began setting up for the rest of the night. First he dragged a mattress in to sleep on, and then he brought some games that they could play.

They chatted and teased each other up until Aunt Mito brought them dessert. The sticky fudge cake kept their mouths occupied for some time, but it didn’t stop the laughter that echoed against the tile when they managed to get chocolate all over each other’s faces.

“You’re lucky to have a family like this,” Killua told Gon later that night while Gon rolled some dice and moved his piece seven spaces in a board game.

“Mm, I am. I love Granny and Aunt Mito.”

“You said your old man died in a fishing accident, right? And your mom?”

“I don’t know anything about her. Aunt Mito won’t tell me anything, and Granny says she doesn’t even know who my mom was. But when I think of a mom, I always think of Aunt Mito. I don’t need any other mom.” He passed the dice to Killua. “Your turn.”

Killua rolled. “Double sixes, excellent.”

“What about your family, Killua? Do you have both your parents?”

“Yeah. Unfortunately.”

“Unfortunately?”

Killua moved his piece. “My mom’s neurotic and overprotective. I gave her a nice slash across the face when I ran away. Got my fat older brother good, too. My dad… well, he’s okay, I guess. Just a little terrifying.”

“So they’re why you ran away?”

“You could say that.”

They were up well past midnight, when the monotonous drum of heavy rain finally lulled them to sleep. They slept the next morning until Aunt Mito came in, telling them to get up so she could use the toilet. Gon brought Killua back downstairs and out to the boat and cart. The rain was only a sprinkle then, but the ground was so soggy Gon thought it must have not stopped coming down for the entirety of the night.

Thanks to the mud, it was twice as difficult to tug Killua back to the lake as it had been to get him to the house. But a few hours of grunting and huffing and pushing and pulling proved successful, and Gon got his friend back to the lakeshore just in time for a downpour.

“You should get home,” Killua said as Gon picked him up out of the boat. “Your aunt won’t be happy if you stay out in this weather.”

“Okay.” Gon lowered Killua into the water. He then walked over the cart, tipped the boat over to dump the water out, and prepared to drag the lightened cartload back. “See you tomorrow, then?”

“If it decides to stop raining, anyways. See ya later.”

Gon waved and began to pull the cart away. 

“Hey, Gon. Thanks. For letting me spend the night.”

Gon looked back over his shoulder. “You know Killua, if you can’t get along with your family, maybe you could be part of mine!” Gon grinned. He then returned to his attention to the task at hand, and wheeled the cart away.

~

Killua waited until Gon was out of site before returning underwater. There, he confronted something he had detected shortly after getting back to the lake.

“How did you find me?” His voice didn’t carry through water the same as in air, but his younger brother understood him perfectly.

“It doesn’t matter. You’ve had your little rebellion. Time to come home.” Kalluto’s black fin waved back and forth lazily. Compared to Killua, he seemed small and dark.

“Sounds like a pain. I think I’ll stick around here, thanks.”  
Kalluto narrowed his eyes. “It would be in your best interest to return.”

“What, you think you can make me come back? I can tell you already exhausted yourself getting from the ocean up to here. Frankly, I’m surprised you had it in you. You can’t do anything to convince me to come back, little bro.”

“Perhaps. But can you stop me from returning and telling father and big brother Illumi where you are? Do you think you’d be able to resist them if they came looking for you? Do you think that would be in the best interests of your little human friend?”

“They can’t find me if I kill you.”

“You know that’s a lie, big brother. It may take longer. But they’ll find you.”

Killua flexed his fingers, and felt the nails harden and sharpen into razor-edged points.

“Even our brother would exhaust himself getting here. I could take him if he came like that. Maybe father, even.”

“I take that as a refusal.” Kalluto vanished in a flurry of bubbles.

Killua stared after him, gnashing his teeth.

~

Over the course of the next several days, there was a different quality to Killua’s interactions with Gon. They still talked and laughed and teased in much the same way as before. But each day ate at Killua’s conscience, and his nights were plagued with nightmares of large, dead eyes staring at him through storm-tossed waters. 

He saw a skeleton buried in the lakebed in those dreams, and the bones always belonged to Gon.

Soon, the times they spent together became unspoken goodbyes.

Gon could sense the change, Killua knew. Gon didn’t completely understand, but deep down, he knew. That made things easier.

They came from different worlds. That much had been made clear. Killua’s time with Gon had been like a wonderful dream. But dreams didn’t last forever.

~

After the next big rainstorm, when Gon went to see his friend, all he found was a fishing hook with some white hairs tied around the end… 


	6. Epilogue

Three years later, Pro Hunter Gon Freecs leaned against the railing of an old fishing ship, taking in the smells and sights of the ocean. A silver hook and a lock of white hair bounced against his chest, hanging from his neck by a bit of fishing line. His father’s old rod stood against the railing next to him.

He laughed as a pod of dolphins came up alongside the ship, splashing in and out of the waves in great, graceful arcs. One silhouette, smaller than the rest, rose towards the surface and breached the water. First a fluffy white head and pale upper body emerged, and then a blue-green tail.

Before the figure had disappeared back into the water, Gon was already over the edge of the railing, a long unused name on his lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspiration and Special Thanks:
> 
> The first time I even conceived of a merman AU was upon seeing a beautiful piece of merboy Killua fanart by romanticblue on tumblr. But that piece had been inspired by another one by pechyenka, which goes back to inspiration from an anonymous question pechyenka received once upon a time.
> 
> I mentioned that I was thinking about writing a fic with merman Killua to a friend, and she ended up drawing what became the 'cover' art on the tumblr posts of the fic. Her art blew me away and made me really want to get started. So special thanks to pechyenka, romanticblue, and underthesamestar. The fandom is better for having the three of you around!


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